Congratulations to stop 9 winners, Lukas Fracasso-Verner ($3,500 & 34th Ocean State 9-Ball Champion) & Francisco Cabral ($340 Second Chance)
Congratulations to Turning Stone Classic XXXVI 9-Ball Open Champion Jayson Shaw ($10,000 & his 9th win!!), Landon Hollingsworth ($500 Second Chance) & $1,900 Joss Cue Raffle Winners, Suzzie Wong & Tim Spohr
The Joss Northeast 9-Ball Tour stop # 10 will be at Sharp Shooters Billiards & Sports Pub in Amsterdam NY on February 18 & 19 for our “Northeast 9-Ball Open XXXIV”. Tim and Julie Berlin, owners of Sharp Shooters, deserve much thanks for once again hosting our event and allowing us the use of their beautiful room. Be sure to make it to this one as it could be our last at Sharp Shooters! Due to family obligations, Tim has decided to sell Sharp Shooters after being in business for 12 years now. He is looking to sell everything together which includes the building, all equipment and the business. Included are 8 of the 9 ft Diamond Pro tables & lights that were previously used at one of our Turning Stone events as well as 6, 7 foot Diamond bar boxes all covered in 860 Simonis, “The Cloth Of Champions”. At Sharp Shooters there is something for everyone. You can enjoy a friendly game of Pool, Foosball, Darts and even two tournament quality indoor Bocce Ball courts, all while meeting friends out for some food, drinks & to watch the game. A fun and friendly atmosphere for all ages! They feature a Pub Menu that has all of your favorites, as well as a full service bar – Sharp Shooters Billiards & Sports Pub is one stop shopping for a great night out! Check them out at www.sharpshootersbilliards.com
For serious inquiries regarding the possible purchase plus much more info about Sharp Shooters, contact Tim Berlin ASAP at 518-944-6797
For those in need of motel accommodations, there are 2 nearby: Super 8, 5502 Rt 30 S, Amsterdam NY 12010 – 518-843-5888 OR
Valley View Motor Inn, 1351 NY Rt 5 S, Amsterdam NY 12010 – 518-842-5637. Both are just off exit 27 of I90 (NYS thruway) and very close to Sharp Shooters.
This event at Sharp Shooters Billiards & Sports Pub will consist of a $1500 added Saturday and Sunday Main Event (entry Fee $120 for pro level or $70 for non pro level) and a $500 added second chance event on Sunday ($20 Entry Fee) for those non pro players eliminated from the main event on Saturday.
For those of you coming to play, please arrive on Saturday February 18, BEFORE 11:00 AM, and in proper dress please. Jeans and sneakers are permitted in our billiard parlor events only. But please, no T-shirts, tanks, shorts or sweats. Complete tour info can be found at www.joss9balltour.com
Be aware that I reserve the right to alter the format of any of our events to accommodate large fields, shortage of 9 footers or by direction of the host room owner!
SCHEDULE UPDATE: I have added stop # 16.5 at Amazin Billiards in Malden MA (near Boston) on May 20 & 21!! This will be the “Massachusetts State 9-Ball Championships” and will be $1,500 Added to the main event plus $500 Added to the second chance event. More info at joss9balltour.com or at amazinbilliards.com
Please send all replies and inquiries to mzjosstour@aol.com or call Mike Zuglan at 518-356-7163. This gmail address is only used for announcements.
Please remember to spread the word to frequent your local billiard parlors and utilize the world class products of our most generous sponsors. They are the backbone of our sport and deserve our support!!
Thanks, and I hope to see you all at Sharp Shooters.
Mike Zuglan
The Joss Northeast 9-Ball Tour Is Proudly Sponsored By;
In the wake of winning the J. Pechauer Northeast Women’s Tour’s season opener last month (March 5-6), after being away from the tables for about three years, Brianna Miller commented that while she hoped to be increasing the frequency of her competition in the weeks and months ahead, she was going to “stick with the JPNEWT for right now, to get back into the swing of things.” She took a ‘swing’ at Stop #2 on the tour this past weekend (April 9-10) and as she did in March, so, too, in April. She went undefeated to claim her second straight 2022 tour title. The event drew 21 entrants to Markley Billiards in Norristown, PA.
Absent from the entrant list this time around were Miller’s season-opening hot seat opponent (Kathy Friend) and finals opponent (Caroline Pao). In as clear an indication of “out of the frying pan, into the fire” imaginable, she faced tour director Linda Shea in the hot seat match and Kia Burwell in the finals.
Following victories over Gina Cunningham 7-3, Susan Kimble 7-1 and a shutout over Ada Lio, Miller faced Anna Marks in one of the winners’ side semifinals. Shea, in the meantime, got by Suzzie Wong 7-4, Jolene Retallack 7-2 and Carol V. Clark to face Nicole Nester in the other winners’ side semifinal. Nester had just sent Kia Burwell to the loss side in a rare shutout against Burwell.
Shea downed Nester 7-3 and turned to a hot seat match against Miller, who’d defeated Marks 7-3. Miller claimed the hot seat 7-5 over Shea and waited for Burwell to get back.
Burwell took her opening, loss-side round versus Suzzie Wong 7-5 and then, in something of a response to her winners’ side shutout loss, advanced to the quarterfinals, with two straight shutout wins over Carol V. Clark and fresh from the winners’ side, Marks. Nester picked up Alyssa Solt, who’d lost her opening round match against Linda Cheung and embarked on a four-match, loss-side winning streak that had recently eliminated Ada Lio 7-4 and, in their rematch, Linda Cheung 7-3.
Nester stopped Solt’s loss-side run at four, downing her 7-3 on Saturday night. Nester was unable to return on Sunday for a rematch against Burwell, who leapfrogged over the quarterfinals and downed Shea in the semifinals 7-5. Miller completed her second straight undefeated run on the tour with a 7-3 victory over Burwell in the finals.
Tour director Linda Shea thanked the ownership and staff at Triple Nines for their hospitality, as well as title sponsor J. Pechauer Cues, ThinkTechMD for their streaming and social media services, as well as Gina Cunningham (real estate agent of Keller Williams Integrity) and George Hammerbacher. The next event on the JPNEWT, scheduled for May 21-22, will be hosted by On Cue Sports Bar & Grill in Front Royal, VA.
The first-place prize in this past weekend’s (March 12) stop on the Predator Tri-State Tour, combined with the cash he pocketed for finishing 17th at the B & L Open 10-Ball Championship in Maryland last month, put Henry Cha just over halfway toward a goal of surpassing his 2021 earnings at the tables; his best year of three in which he has recorded payouts. It was also his first win since he earned his first cash payout, taking the September, 2020 season opener of the Mac Attack Tour. The $1,000-added Predator Tri-State stop this past weekend drew 26 entrants to Cue Bar in Bayside (Queens), NY.
Cha opened his campaign against Dave Callaghan, who gave him a double-hill run for his money, before Cha prevailed to advance. Cha then faced and defeated Robert Calton (6-3), who’d defeated him at a Predator Tri-State tour stop twice last May, at the same location, in the hot seat and finals. Cha then sent Mikhail Kim to the loss side 6-4 to draw Tommy Schreiber in one of the winners’ side semifinals. In the meantime, KC Clayton’s march to the hot seat match began with a bye, after which he downed Linda Cheung 5-2 and Carlos Duque 5-3 to arrive at his winners’ side semifinal against Jay Chiu.
Cha downed Schreiber 6-4, as Clayton got by Chiu 5-3. In his second recorded hot seat match since he’d lost to Calton, two years ago, Cha sent Clayton to the semifinals 8-4.
On the loss side, Schreiber drew Kim, who, following his defeat versus Cha in a winners’ side quarterfinal, had downed Julian Tierney, double hill and Kevin Shin 6-4. Chiu picked up Duque, who’d lost his winners’ side quarterfinal to Clayton and advanced to eliminate Suzzie Wong and Cheung, both double hill.
Chiu ran right into his second straight loss, which advanced Duque to the quarterfinals 5-3. Schreiber joined him after eliminating Kim 6-4.
Schreiber and Duque locked up in a quarterfinal, double hill fight (the fifth of the event’s final 14 matches) that sent Schreiber to the semifinals against Clayton. The sixth double hill fight among the final 14 eventually sent Clayton back for a rematch against Cha, waiting for him in the hot seat.
The finals brought the total number of double hill fights to half of the final 14. Clayton was looking for his first recorded victory after his best recorded earnings year (2021), in which he’d finished either 4th or 5th (three each) at six stops on the Predator Tri-State Tour. He had to settle for his first runner-up finish on the tour because Cha dropped the last 9-ball to claim the event title.
Tour representatives thanked the ownership and staff at Cue Bar, as well as title sponsor Predator Cues, Ozone Billiards, Sterling Billiards, Kamui, Quick Stick, Bloodworth Ball Cleaner, Joe Romer Trophies, Phil Capelle Publications and Pool and Billiards. The Predator Tri-State Tour will return to Cue Bar, for a formerly cancelled stop, on the Sunday, April 3.
l to r: Luis Carrasco, Rainer Oraa, Debra Pritchett, Akiko Taniyama, Juan Guzman & Jim Conn
Juan Guzman is, as they say, tearin’ ‘em up at the tables these days. As mentioned in a report on a Tri-State Tour stop he won in November, he’s not likely to catch up to his best earnings year to date (2016), when he won two events on the Tri-State, two on the Predator Pro Am tour, and was runner-up that year in the George “Ginky” Sansouci Memorial run by both tours, but he’s making a late year run at getting closer. He won a stop on the Predator in April, seemed to take a mini-break and has since recorded two victories on the Tri-State (Oct. & Nov.) and just this past weekend, Nov.30-Dec. 1, added a Predator Pro Am Tour stop to the 2019 resume. Though he was challenged in the finals by long-time Predator competitor, Jim Conn, who won seven on the loss side to reach him, Guzman prevailed to go undefeated at the $1,000-added event which drew 60 entrants to Steinway Billiards in Astoria (Queens), NY.
With Conn already at work on the loss side, following a defeat at the hands of Abel Barriento, Guzman advanced to a winners’ side semifinal against Rainer Oraa. Luis Carrasco and Akiko Taniyama squared off in the other one. Carrasco got into the hot seat match with a 7-4 victory over Taniyama, as Guzman was busy sending Oraa west 8-6. Guzman claimed the hot seat 9-7 over Carrasco and waited for Conn to finish his loss-side run.
It was Oora who drew Conn, four matches into his loss-side streak, which had recently included a successful rematch against Barriento 8-6 and a 7-4 win over the tour’s #1 B+ player Matt Klein. Taniyama, a C player, drew Debra Pritchett (D+), who, going into the event, was 12 rungs above Taniyama on the tour’s top female list (#7 – #19), primarily because Pritchett had competed in about three times as many events on this year’s tour; 11 versus Taniyama’s 4.5 appearances. Pritchett had recently knocked out the tour’s #1 female player, Suzzie Wong (C) 6-4 and Euryel Castillo 7-4.
Taniyama defeated Pritchett 6-3 and in the quarterfinals, faced Conn, who’d eliminated Oraa 8-5. Conn ended Taniyama’s bid 10-5 in those quarterfinals.
Conn then defeated Carrasco 9-6 in the semifinals for a shot at Guzman in the hot seat. In the extended-race-to-9 finals, Guzman reached his target 7 racks ahead of Conn to claim the event title.
In a 15-entrant, single elimination Second Chance event, Chulo Castro and Ambi Estevez battled to a deciding 13th game. Castro prevailed to claim the Second Chance title. Julian Tierney and Marisol Palacios tied for third place.
Tour director Tony Robles thanked Manny Stamatakis and his Steinway Billiards staff for their hospitality, as well as title sponsor Predator Cues, Ozone Billiards, PlayNAPT.com, The DeVito Team, Poolonthenet.com, Capelle (BilliardsPress.com), AZBilliards, Pool & Billiard Magazine, Billiards Digest and his own Predator Pro Am team, to include his lovely wife, Gail. The next stop on the Predator Pro Am Tour, scheduled for the weekend of December 13-14, will be the tour’s final event of the year, its 2019 Tour Championships. The $4,000+-added event will, as usual, be hosted by Raxx Billiards in West Hempstead, NY.
It could have gone either way. And happened to any one of them.
It just so happened that on Sunday, October 27, it was Bianca Martinez facing off against a male competitor (in her case, Eugene Ok) at a stop on the Tri-State Tour. Martinez competes as a C player on the Tri-State Tour. She is fourth in tour standings among females, behind Michelle Brotons, Amanda Andries and Allison LaFleur and just ahead of Suzzie Wong. On the Predator Pro Am Tour, she plays as a D+ and is fifth among the tour’s female competitors, behind Wong, Andries, Kanami Chau, and Monika Callaghan. She is just ahead of Annie Flores.
It’s becoming a common occurrence; women competing against their male counterparts at the tables and if not, at this juncture, always favored to win, at least in the conversation at the end of increasing numbers of regional tours; not all of them with just female competition.
Eugene Ok, who plays as a B+ player on both the Tri-State and Predator Pro Am Tour; good for 7th place among B+ players on the Tri-State and 4th among the B+ players on the Predator Pro Am Tour, went undefeated at the $1,000-added, 10-Ball Tri-State event that drew 27 entrants to Cue Bar in Bayside (Queens), NY. But he had to get by Martinez twice to do it; both times in a match that came within a game of going double hill.
They both advanced to a winners’ side semifinal; Ok, facing off against Tommy Schreiber and Martinez doing battle with one of the aforementioned women ahead of her in the standings of both tours, Amanda Andries; second on both tours and like Martinez, a C on the Tri-State and a D+ on the Predator Pro Am.
Ok advanced to the hot seat match with a 6-3 win over Schreiber, as Martinez was busy sending Andries west 5-2. In their first of two, Ok claimed the hot seat 7-5 and waited for Martinez to get back from the semifinals.
On the loss side, Schreiber picked up Dave Shlemperis, who’d been defeated by Ok in a winners’ side quarterfinal match and then, defeated Kevins Scalzitti and Shin, both 6-4. Andries drew Jason Goberdhan, who’d eliminated the Tri-State Tour’s top female, Michelle Brotons 5-1 and Jim Gutierrez 5-2.
Both matches for advancement to the quarterfinals went double hill. Shlemperis eliminated Schreiber and Goberdhan defeated Andries. Goberdhan then defeated Shlemperis 6-2 in those quarterfinals.
In a semifinal match described by a tour representative as “one of those sets where he couldn’t do anything right and she couldn’t do anything wrong,” Martinez shut Goberdhan out 5-0 to earn a second shot against Ok in the hot seat.
They duplicated their hot seat match performance. Ok chalked up the game, set and match 7-5 to claim the event title.
Tour representatives thanked the ownership and staff at Cue Bar for their hospitality, as well as sponsors Ozone Billiards, Sterling-Gaming, Kamui, Phil Capelle, Bloodworth Ball Cleaner, Billiard Engineering, Pool & Billiards, Professor Q Ball, Bender Cues and Pool & Billiards. The next stop on the Tri-State Tour, scheduled for Sunday, November 3, will be hosted by Clifton Billiards in Clifton, NJ.
With his victory* on the Tri-State Tour’s October 13 stop at the Spot in Nanuet, NY, his second overall on the tour, Juan Melendez made 2019 his best earnings year to date, surpassing his 2017 earnings, when he won his first Tri-State event. Going into the $1,250-added, Double Points event that drew 49 entrants to The Spot, Melendez was the Tri-State Tour’s #10-ranked C-Class player. In what proved to be his final match, vying for the hot seat, he downed the tour’s #5-ranked B+ Class player, Matt Klein. The two opted out of a final match.
Melendez was challenged early and just did survive a double hill fight against Ada Lio in the event’s opening round. He advanced to down Amanda Andries 6-3 and Suzzie Wong 6-1 to draw Brandone Alli in one of the winners’ side semifinals. Klein, in the meantime, squared off against Pascal Dufresne in the other one.
Melendez sent Alli to the loss side 6-4, as Klein was sending Dufresne over 7-5. In what proved to be the title match, Melendez claimed the hot seat 8-5 over Klein.
On the loss side, Dufresne picked up H. Marcelo (Mars) Adinolfi, who had defeated Joe Mazzeo and Desi DeRado, both 7-3, to reach him. Alli drew Adrian Daniel, who’d recently chalked up two straight double hill wins over Jim Gutierrez and Suzzie Wong.
Adinolfi and Daniel handed Dufresne and Alli their second straight loss; Adinolfi, 7-4 over Dufresne and Daniel, 6-3 over Alli. Adinolfi took one more loss-side step with a 7-5 win over Daniel in the quarterfinals.
Adinolfi gave Klein all he could handle in the semifinals that followed. They battled to double hill before Klein ended the match, and in effect, the event 7-6. Klein and Melendez agreed on the split of the top two cash prizes and Melendez came away with the official event title.
Tour representatives thanked Rhys Chen and his staff at The Spot for their hospitality, as well as sponsors Ozone Billiards, Sterling-Gaming, Kamui, Phil Capelle, Bloodworth Ball Cleaner, Billiard Engineering, Pool & Billiards, Professor Q Ball, Bender Cues and Pool & Billiards. The next stop on the Tri-State Tour, scheduled for Sunday, October 20, will be hosted by Shooter’s Family Billiards in Wayne, NJ.
Tour director Linda Shea came into the 7th stop on her J. Pechauer Northeast Women’s Tour on October 12-13 as the tour’s top-ranked player, having appeared in all six previous stops on the tour and winning one of them, back in April. Caroline Pao entered the tournament as the tour’s #2-ranked player, having appeared in two previous stops on the tour and winning them both (July and September). When the event that drew a short field of 12 entrants to Eagle Billiards in Dickson City, PA was over, Pao had gone undefeated to chalk up her third win on the tour, but had failed, point-wise, to pass Shea on the tour’s player-standings list.
They faced each other twice in the event; once, in a winners’ side semifinal and again, in the finals. Pao had shut out Judie Wilson and given up only a single rack to Denise Mangini when she drew Shea in the winners’ side semifinal. Shea had defeated Carol V. Clark 7-2 and Noel Rima 7-5 to draw Pao. In the meantime, Linda Cheung, who’d been awarded an opening round bye, defeated Suzzie Wong 7-4 to draw Anita Sowers in the other winners’ side semifinal.
Pao advanced to the hot seat match by sending Shea to the loss side 7-2. She was joined by Cheung, who downed Sowers, double hill. Pao claimed the hot seat 7-1 over Cheung and waited for Shea to complete her three-match run on the loss side.
Shea opened that loss-side run with a rematch against Clark, who, after her defeat versus Shea in the opening round, picked up a bye, then eliminated Wong 7-1 and survived a double hill fight against Melissa Jenkins. Sowers drew a rematch, as well, against Sharon O’Hanlon, whom she’d defeated in the opening round and who’d subsequently defeated Denise Mangini 7-2 and Noel Rima 7-5 to earn the rematch.
Shea downed Clark a second time 7-2. She was joined in the quarterfinals by O’Hanlon, who’d eliminated Sowers in their rematch 7-5. Shea completed her loss-side run with a 7-1 victory over O’Hanlon in the quarterfinals and a 7-2 win over Cheung in the semifinals.
The two repeated their performance in the winners’ side semifinal. Pao defeated Shea a second time 7-2 to claim the event title.
Shea thanked Chris Wilson and his Eagle Billiards staff for their hospitality, as well as title sponsor J. Pechauer Custom Cues, MezzUSA, Baltimore City Cues, Billy Ray Bunn Cue Repair and streaming support from angle aim Art (Britanya E Rapp). The next stop on the JPNEWT, scheduled for the weekend of November 16-17, will be hosted by Triple Nines Bar & Billiards in Elkridge, MD.
Normally, when two finalists agree not to play a last match at an event, they split the top two prizes, while allowing the undefeated hot seat occupant at the time, to claim the event title. On Saturday, October 16, at a $1,000-added event on the Tri-State Tour that drew 51 entrants to Steinway Billiards in Astoria (Queens), NY, a work commitment forced the hot seat occupant, Alberto Estevez, to decline a final match. Thus, while they opted to split the top two prizes, the opponent he'd already defeated in the hot seat match, Jaydev Zaveri, was left to claim the event title.
Zaveri's path to the winners' circle, which ended at the conclusion of the hot seat match, included victories over Ambi Estevez (brother to Alberto), Suzanna Wong and Allison LaFleur, before running into Chris Kaiser in a winners' side semifinal. Alberto Estevez, in the meantime, met up with Chris Kelly. Zaveri and Estevez sent the two Chris-es to the loss side; Zaveri, defeating Kaiser 5-4 and Estevez downing Kelly 6-3. Estevez took the hot seat match against Zaveri 6-3, as well.
On the loss side, Chris Kelly picked up Miguel Laboy, who was in the midst of a seven-match, loss-side winning streak that would take him as far as the quarterfinals. He defeated Lidio Ramirez 6-3, and Brooke Meyer 6-4 to reach Kelly. Chris Kaiser drew Nicole Monaco, who'd gotten by Suzanna Wong and Allison LaFleur, both 7-5. LaBoy picked up a forfeit win over Chris Kelly, and in the quarterfinals, faced Kaiser, who'd ended Monaco's day 5-4.
Kaiser ended LaBoy's streak 9-3 in the quarterfinals, and then had his own streak ended with a double hill win by Zaveri in what proved to be the last match of the event, the semifinals. Zaveri and Estevez opted out the finals, and split the top two prizes.
Tour representatives thanked the ownership and staff at Steinway Billiards, as well as sponsors Ozone Billiards, Sterling-Gaming, Kamui Tips, Ron Vitello, Phil Capelle, BlueBook Publishing, Human Kinetics, and Bloodworth Ball Cleaners. The next stop on the Tri-State Tour, scheduled for October 30, will be hosted by Clifton Billiards in Clifton, NJ.
Everyone,
